Amazon to launch first original TV series Alpha House and Betas on Instant Video, starting November 15

Update: The first three episodes of Alpha House are now available on Amazon Instant Video. Subsequent episodes will be released each week exclusively for Prime Instant Video subscribers.

Later this month, Amazon will launch two original TV series for its Amazon Instant Video on-demand streaming platform, in a bid to compete with and emulate the success enjoyed by Netflix’s own content offerings.

Alpha House, a comedy about four misfit US senators who rent a house together in Washington DC, will begin airing on November 15. Betas, a show about four friends who want to launch a new mobile social networking app in Silicon Valley, will follow a week later on November 22.

Unlike Netflix, which has released every episode in the first season of House of Cards and Orange is the New Black simultaneously, Amazon is opting for a more traditional release schedule. Only the first three episodes of each show will be available to begin with on Amazon Instant Video; the remainder will be released each week exclusively for Amazon Prime subscribers as part of the aptly named Prime Instant Video.

Here’s a trailer for Alpha House to get you up to speed:

…and one for Betas, in case you’re curious:

Alpha House and Betas were pitched by Amazon Studios among 12 other pilot episodes in April this year. They were then greenlighted in May alongside Annebots, Creative Galaxy and Tumblead, a trio of shows targeted at children.

Scheduling for LOVEFiLM Instant, the European movie rental and on-demand streaming service owned by Amazon, has not yet been revealed by the e-commerce giant.

Nick Summers is a technology journalist for The Next Web. He writes on all sorts of topics, although he has a passion for gadgets, apps and video games in particular. You can reach him on Twitter, circle him on Google+ and connect with him on LinkedIn.